Socrates

From RationalWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
I drank WHAT?
—Socrates
Deep thinking

Philosophy

Icon philosophy.svg
Major disciplines
Philosophy articles
Common applications
Socrates having a good ol' think.

Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, Socrates (469 - 399 BCE) is an enigmatic figure known only through other people's accounts. It is Plato's dialogues that have largely created today's impression of him, though others are credited with the impression that he was "a lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed."[1]

Contents

[edit] Life

Socrates spent most of his life inspiring divergent thinking in the younger citizens of Athens through debate and discussion. He took on several disciples, among the most famous was the above mentioned Plato, of whom which provided most of what is known of him. Although he encouraged free inquiry and questioning authority, Socrates held many beliefs that would be considered authoritarian and unrealistic today. He actually opposed democracy and favored a meritocracy ruled by a philosopher-king. He was sentenced to death by the Athenian council for "corrupting the young" (i.e. getting them to think for themselves), by asserting that the Greek myths were not literally true, he was then executed by being forced to ingest hemlock.[2]


[edit] Socratic Method

The Socratic method (sometimes called Socratic irony) is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions are asked, not only to draw individual answers, but to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand.

The Socratic Method can be also used as a rhetorical strategy. Employed fairly, it enables participants and observers of a debate to fully understand each side's position or at least be on the same page as to what the conversation's about.

Used in the service of bullshit (a Socraptic Method, as it were), one side keeps asking questions about definitions and other individual parts of their opponent's response until the target misspeaks or establishes an internal inconsistency (real or apparent) and then the would-be Socrates smugly points it out.

A classic example of a Socratic dialogue is Euthyphro. Socrates runs into Euthyphro, a well-thought-of theologian, on the way to market and the following (paraphrased) conversation ensues:

SOCRATES: Hey Euthyphro, what's holiness?

EUTHYPHRO: The holy is that which the gods love.

SOCRATES: But we live in friggin' ancient Greece, Euthyphro. We have a whole pantheon of gods and none of them can agree on anything - they argue with each other all the damn time, and tend to turn innocent humans into animals for no good reason. There's stuff which Zeus loves and Hera hates, so it'd have to be both holy and unholy, which is crazy, therefore you're a moron.

EUTHYPHRO: Why, yes, Socrates! You've revealed me for the fool I am!

SOCRATES: Q.E.D., bitches.

[edit] Sayings

  • "Know thyself."[3]
  • "All I know is that I know nothing."
  • "Beware the barrenness of a busy life."
  • "False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil."
  • "From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate."
  • "For let me tell you, gentlemen, that to be afraid of death is only another form of thinking one is wise when one is not; it is to think that one knows what one does not know."

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Philosopher's Drinking Song
  2. http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/socr.htm
  3. Some suspect he was describing Plato's social life.
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Tools
support